This week, “there is no joy in Mudville” – the mighty Padres have struck out.”
The California Padres thought that they had secured Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly with an offer of $40 million for just two years. The Diamondbacks were offering that payout over three years, but Kelly took the Diamondbacks. The reason? California’s ruinous tax burden is fueling an exodus of wealthy taxpayers and businesses from the state. It is the latest example of how Democrats have reversed the Gold Rush with a long line of U-Hauls heading to more responsible states.
Explaining his decision, the pitcher told the media that “I don’t think it’s any secret on how much money you get taken out of your pocket when you go to California.”
With the calls for billionaire taxes and attacks on the wealthy as “not paying their fair share,” Democrats and unions have doubled down on their “eat the rich” rhetoric. The problem is that wealth, like the wealthy, is mobile. Both are leaving, and the current estimate stands at a possible $2 trillion fleeing the state over the last year. California continues to lead the nation in the loss of citizens to other states.
In the meantime, Democrats are continuing their high-spending pattern under Gov. Gavin Newsom from boondoggle projects to reparations to bloated union pension agreements.
With California’s 13% tax rate on income above $1 million, players view California as illusory in terms of elite contracts. What the team giveth, the state taketh away. That does not include the higher collateral taxes and costs, including gasoline costs (which are also the highest in the nation).
It appears that the high-spending, high-taxing policies are not just benefiting red states but also their baseball teams. As a Cubs fan, I would be delighted except for the fact that Chicago and Illinois are also in the hands of Democrats pursuing the same disastrous policies.
The irony is that Texas and Florida could end up not only with more jobs but better baseball players.
The damage to California is not just confined to the wealthy people leaving. When they leave, they are going to find new doctors, dentists, estate planners, possibly wealth managers. Ironically, when changing residence, California’s questionable interpretations of residency status almost dictate former residents to avoid doing business with California practitioners. As Forrest Gump would say “Stupid is as stupid does.” The professionals who serve the wealthy are likely high earners and pay lots of income taxes as well, and they are going to make less money and pay less taxes. I’m not even going to talk about the locals tradespeople that lose their business.
Unions are actionable criminal organizations that must be eliminated and shall fulfill, and not breach, contracts, trespass, cause public nuisances or disturbances of the peace, or threaten and commit acts of property damage and bodily injury, etc.
The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment defends the “wealthy” against the “dictatorship of the majority,” which consists of the “less wealthy” and “the poor,” and the “wealthy” shall not be taxed in manners and rates different from less wealthy citizens.
The word “interpretation” does not exist in the Constitution and judges must support the Constitution and declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.
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“The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution mandates that no State shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In its literal and fundamental sense, this text establishes the individual “person” as the unit of protection, requiring that the law be applied with uniformity. Under a strict reading of this principle, any law that imposes a punitive or variable rate of taxation based on a person’s level of wealth—such as specific rates for billionaires that do not apply to all other citizens—constitutes a discriminatory classification that denies that individual the same protection of the law afforded to others. Consequently, when the law ceases to be a single, uniform rule for every person and instead targets individuals based on their economic status, it violates the plain command of equal protection.”
– Gemini
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“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what [their powers] forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton